History tells us the opposite is true.

Published March 13th

Democratic presidential front-runnerHillary Clintonleft many people scratching their heads after shepraised late First Lady Nancy Reagan for her “low key advocacy” for HIV/AIDS awareness at the beginning of the epidemic, in the 1980s. The comments have major blowback, because, well, the Reagan administration is notoriously infamous for its deafening silence on the issue.

The truth is, the Reagan administration’s silence on the issue is one of its greatest stains. And yet, the former Secretary of State inexplicably gave credit for kickstarting HIV/AIDS awareness. The comments start about four minutes in:

“It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS in the 1980s," says Clinton. "And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular, Mrs. Reagan, we started national conversation when before no one would talk about it, no one wanted to do anything about it, and that too is something that really appreciated, with her very effective, low-key advocacy, but it penetrated the public conscience and people began to say ‘Hey, we have to do something about this too.’”

After people started coming for her neck over the comments, Clinton decided to release a statement backtracking from her praise: